Have you ever wondered, “why do I hate working out”? Most people know they should get more exercise, but that usually doesn’t help them make it happen. The truth is you hate working out because it’s unnatural. Human’s haven’t need to workout to stay in shape until very recently.
Humans Didn’t Workout
Through most of human history just doing the daily tasks of being human kept us in shape. There were no special places people went for 60 minutes 3-5 times a week to stay healthy. There were no exercise routines people did. Hunting and gathering was all people needed to stay in peak physical condition.
The trick to breaking into more exercise isn’t to start with a workout every day. It’s to add more movement into your day throughout the day. Start with very small things. Park further away, take the stairs, walk to the store, etc. Done regularly, these small adjustments add up to a lot of extra movement.
If you’re looking to add even more movement, create little challenges for yourself. Turn your exercise into play. One of my favorite things about rock climbing is that I get tons of great movement and it’s never felt like a workout.
Setup little obstacle courses for yourself. You can build these yourself or just use the environment around you. Once you go through the obstacle course on your own, see if you can carry an object through it. You can always get your friends involved and make it a social gathering too!
Another great way to get some novel movement is look at your local area with a different perspective. Instead of just walking down the sidewalk, can you create a different way to get from point A to point B that requires different movement patterns? One of the most important factors in getting more quality movement is thinking outside the box.
Stop thinking so much about working out and start thinking of ways to get more movement!
